Tom Barber, Esquire travel guru and co- founder of luxury travel company Original Travel, offers up his top 10 fab foodie destinations
Of course we travel for the art, the architecture, the weather, the landscapes, the fact that it’s somewhere not home, but let’s be honest for a second here – if you had to choose between two destinations but one had killer food (in a good way) and the other not so much, I know where most of us would head. So now we’ve all admitted that the call of the stomach might be as important as a desperate desire to coo over a cracking Corinthian column (lovely as they undoubtedly are), where are the must-visits on any gastronomic globetrot?
Here’s my shamelessly subjective list of the heavy hitters that will, in all likelihood, also leave you a little heavier on the bathroom scales. Oh, and you might notice a few notable omissions –Paris (and Lyon, too), New York and London, for example – but when you own a company called Original Travel, then you have to live up to the name.
JAPAN
No geographical delineation here – the whole country gets the nod for the sheer quality of the ingredients and the extraordinary art/science attention to detail of the execution and presentation. Tokyo has Michelin starred eateries galore, mostly with just a handful of covers and that are more difficult to find than the entrance to Diagon Alley, but even the okonomiyaki pancakes served at the fastfood stalls in Hiroshima train station are delicious. The clincher? Stay in a traditional ryokan inn for an insight into Japanese home life, and enjoy a multicourse kaiseki dinner. I guarantee the majority of dishes will be completely unidentifiable, but mind-blowingly good.
SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN
From one big country to one small Spanish – or more correctly Basque – city. San Sebastian has a fast growing reputation as a bucket list destination for gastronauts, and with good cause. The city has more Michelin stars per capita than Tokyo and Manhattan (best of the bunch is dad/daughter run Arzak), in no small part thanks to the Basque habit of making pretty much everything highly competitive. The city’s secretive gastronomic societies have elevated cooking alongside other Basque obsessions such as pelota (the fastest ball sport on the planet) and visitors to the various bars serving delicious pintxos (Basque tapas) are the grateful recipients. Try? Basically anything, washed down with the local (and slightly sparkling) local moonshine wine, txakoli.
HANOI, VIETNAM
Street eats don’t get much better than in Vietnam, and Hanoi is the gastro-capital of a country that took Indochinese cooking concepts and lightly sautéed them with a dash of French colonial culinary cunning to produce arguably one of the world’s great cuisines.
The street food in Hanoi is almost universally amazing, and this is the place to get to know pho, a Vietnamese broth made with an onion (bien sur), meat stock and fish sauce base and piled high with rice noodles, beansprouts, basil, limes, chillies and beef. Even better, you can put your mouth where your money is and enjoy top quality cooking courses in the city to learn some of the key techniques.
COPENHAGEN DENMARK
I could have gone with Stockholm here, but the renaissance of Scandi-gastronomy started in Denmark’s decidedly lovely capital Copenhagen at the legendary Noma. While head-chef-meets-visionary René Redzepi is still working miracles, a clutch of his finest former sous-chefs have opened up their own gastro-temples.
Best of the bunch is Christian Puglisi’s Relæ, in the achingly hip Nørrebro district; just the place if nothing will hit the spot like an elderberry infused wild duck with burnt onions. But it’s not all about Michelin stars here – after a night on the cobbles enjoying the city’s excellent bar scene, try a delicious hotdog pølse with remoulade (a sweet pickle/mayo sauce) from a street stand. Beats a kebab any night.
OAXACA, MEXICO
Thanks to the delectable Tommi Miers and her hip Wahaca chain, Mexican food is so hot right now in the UK, chillies or otherwise. Tommi made the wise decision to go with the phonetic spelling for her restaurants, but the real deal Oaxaca is Mexico’s culinary and cultural capital and the place for chilli hounds.
So good is the street food in Mexico – much of which originates from Oaxaca – that it was recently awarded UNESCO World Heritage status and for the adventurous eater this is epicurean heaven. Grasshoppers cooked in garlic, lime and chilli (surprise!), anyone? It gets better.
Oaxaca is also home to that hipster rocket fuel of choice, mescal, a cousin of tequila and guaranteed to make the evening go with a bang. Just make sure to sip and not neck your mescal, and drink it with a chaser of delicious local craft ale, or that bang might soon become a whimper.
CAPE TOWN & WINELANDS, SOUTH AFRICA
Africa might only have one entry in this list but frankly when that entry is as good as Cape Town and the CapeWinelands that’s ample. Not only is the place spectacularly beautiful, but the foodie scene is outstanding, with everything on offer from artisanal burgers served out of chef Nigel Wood’s driveway at The Dog’s Bollocks to the best restaurant in SA, the Test Kitchen, helmed by innovator in chief Luke Dale-Roberts.
Out of town in the impossibly pretty Winelands, the town of Franschhoek is the epicurean epicentre with yet more excellent restaurants and vineyards and wineries within easy reach (you can even enjoy a riding tour of some of the finest wineries. Are there rules about drinking and riding?).
My own favourite winery is Vergelegen, a classic CapeDutch manor house reached along an avenue of 300-year old camphor trees and surrounded by vineyards. Reserve a table outside at the Rose Terrace Bistro, crack a few bottles of the flagship Vergelegen ‘V’ red and settle in.
PERU
Peru is another country getting it right at the moment, thanks to the craze for ceviche. Peru’s finest export since Paddington bear consists of marinated raw fish served with citrus and chilli dressing and is way better than it sounds, preferably washed down with one or three pisco sour cocktails.
The raw fish thing might sound reminiscent of Japan, and that’s no coincidence as the largest immigrant group in the country is – bizarrely – the Japanese. Needless to say, when you tire (possible, if unlikely) of ceviche then the sushi is outstanding. 1,500 miles of coastline will help on the fresh fish front as well.
For the best of both worlds, Chef Mitsuharu Tsumura at Maido in Lima fuses Peruvian and Japanese cooking together in one, nigh on perfect, combo. Try the sushi with Amazonian dry salted beef for proof.
ITALY
OK, OK, I know – recommending Italy as a foodie destination is hardly original, but I’m going to put it in anyway. Why? Because, quite frankly, the grub can’t be beat. The French might have something to say about that, and of course there’s a time and place for a succulent piece of turbot in a rich lobster sauce, but in my humble opinion every time and every place is right for the Italian take on eating and drinking.
A breakfast of espresso and crostrata tart kicks starts any day and anyone travelling with children will always find something for the little ones to like in the country that perfected pasta, pizza and ice cream.
There’s plenty of more leftfield stuff on offer too, from the Roman speciality pajata (best you look it up) to the stodgier Tyrolean food in the Dolomite mountains and Sardinia’s answer to caviar, bottarga, a delicious cured fish roe. And then there are the wines. Mio dio, where to start..?
ANGUILLA
When the competition is as fierce as it in the resurgent Caribbean, every island needs a USP. Jamaica has the music, St Lucia the scenery, St Barts the élan, Barbados the bling, and Anguilla? Little old Anguilla has hands down the best food in the West Indies. That’s quite a call, and that’s not to say there’s not brilliant restaurants throughout the isles, but around every corner on Anguilla is another amazing beach shack restaurant or hotel with superstar chef.
The pick of the bunch is Scilly Cay for the ultimate in lobster lunches. Stand on the quayside of Island Harbour and wave across to the tiny island and they will zip over in a boat. Once ashore this is basically a glorified shack with walls inlaid with row upon row of conch shells, and the menu would have had Henry T Ford nodding approvingly. Lobster, barbecued, with curry sauce.
OK, there’s some choice – you get to point out the lobster in the tank you particularly want, but once the deed is done, sit back with Eudoxie Rum Punch in hand and wait for the most beautifully cooked, juiciest, tastiest lobster you’ll ever eat. Then go for a snorkel around the island. Nice touch.
Or for something a little different, at the Belmond Cap Juluca Anguilla you’ll find Spice, the resort’s restaurant based on a Moroccan lounge, with fragrant, delicious North African dishes and a dining room that overlooks Maundays Bay.
BEIRUT, LEBANON
Beirut is the place to pick up the finest Middle Eastern cuisine, a(nother) perfect blend of Levantine produce with that added twist of French culinary ingenuity that elevates Lebanese cuisine to the level of world class.
In a city where the party tends to go on all night, I recommend regular refueling on shish taouk kebabs with delicious garlic sauce and fattoush salad with fried pitta bread pieces, washed down with cold Almaza beers.
Chateau Musar, Lebanon’s premier wine producer, is also under-rated at your peril. In a neat encapsulation of the Lebanese determination to overcome adversity, Musar has produced a vintage every year in the last few turbulent decades bar 1976, when the frontline in the civil war ran through the vineyards. Here’s to many more consecutive vintages to come
Tom Barber is co-founder of multi-award winning Original Travel (020 3582 4990; www.originaltravel.co.uk), and the Travel Editor for Esquire Magazine.
